Table of Contents
- 1 How were South Vietnamese treated after the war?
- 2 What happened to the South Vietnamese after the Vietnam War?
- 3 How long did South Vietnam last after US withdrawal?
- 4 Why couldn’t the United States win the war in Vietnam?
- 5 Can South Vietnam survive on its own?
- 6 Could Washington have held South Vietnam together?
How were South Vietnamese treated after the war?
After the war ARVN soldiers, especially officers, were subjected by the victorious communists to even harsher penalties than civilians, including years of forced labor and indoctrination in ‘re-education camps’. Even in death the soldiers were treated as puppets, not people.
What was wrong with South Vietnam government?
Corruption and rigged elections Though the South Vietnamese government presented itself to the world as a developing democracy, it was anti-democratic, autocratic, corrupt and nepotistic. There was a National Assembly that claimed to be representative, though rigged elections meant it was nothing of the kind.
What happened to the South Vietnamese after the Vietnam War?
The South Vietnamese stronghold of Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh City) falls to People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. The South Vietnamese forces had collapsed under the rapid advancement of the North Vietnamese.
How did South Vietnam lost?
Both sides were entirely dependent on outside sources for the wherewithal needed to conduct operations. The war was lost because Congress drastically reduced aid to South Vietnam while North Vietnam was receiving greatly increased support from its communist patrons.
How long did South Vietnam last after US withdrawal?
In 1975, Saigon, the capital of US-backed South Vietnam, fell to Communist-ruled North Vietnam two years after the withdrawal of the American military which had been in the country for 19 years.
What happened to South Vietnamese soldiers?
The Americans and South Vietnamese had laid large minefields during the war, and former ARVN soldiers were made to clear them. Thousands died from sickness and starvation and were buried in unmarked graves.
Why couldn’t the United States win the war in Vietnam?
There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the Americans were an invading force, and the Vietnamese were fighting on their own soil. Second, the Americans were not willing to make an all-out commitment to win. I was in the U.S. Air Force in Thailand in 1971.
What president pulled out of Vietnam?
Richard Nixon
In the spring of 1969, as protests against the war escalated in the United States, U.S. troop strength in the war-torn country reached its peak at nearly 550,000 men. Richard Nixon, the new U.S. president, began U.S. troop withdrawal and “Vietnamization” of the war effort that year, but he intensified bombing.
Can South Vietnam survive on its own?
But this did not mean that South Vietnam could survive on its own, or that there was any medium-term prospect of the Saigon government achieving the degree of self-sufficiency enjoyed by, for example, the Seoul government by the 1980s.
Was South Vietnam a viable nation by 1972?
Mark Moyar effectively demolishes some common myths. South Vietnam was a viable nation-state by 1972, afflicted by internal armed opposition but not overwhelmed by it. The fighting ability of pro-Hanoi forces in the South had been badly wounded in 1968, and would never recover.
Could Washington have held South Vietnam together?
The ability of the North to disrupt Southern politics notwithstanding, Washington might possibly have held South Vietnam together long enough for the latter to develop a strong internal economy, a robust social connection with its population and professional military forces capable of defeating the North in battle.
How could the United States have won the Vietnam War?
In an utterly banal sense, the United States could have won the Vietnam War by invading the North, seizing its urban centers, putting the whole of the country under the control of the Saigon government and waging a destructive counterinsurgency campaign for an unspecified number of years.